On disc: Yngwie J. Malmsteen

- Claudia Ehrhardt -

- Amir Djawadi -

- Claudia Ehrhardt -

Relentless
(Rising Force Records - 2010)

After a couple of years the Maestro is back with another album that contains also songs with words. Also this time the vocal parts (what a voice!!!!) are made by Tim 'Ripper Owens' (ex-Judas Priest, ex-Iced Earth and more) and also this time the taste in my mouth is sooooooo bitter.... The reasons are very easy to describe: in my opinion is absurd have one the most talented singer on this planet and do an album with 14 tracks (plus an overture) and seven of these are instrumental songs, and the other half are really bad for any singer to emerge from mediocrity! Can someone contain this big ego??? The answer is no, so we can listen to infinity the same things from this guitar maniac like Adagio B Flat Minor Variation or Arpeggios From Hell. It's possible to find something good in this new Y.J. Malmsteen CD like Enemy Within, a telluric mid-tempo, or Tide Of Desire my dreams are over when Look At You Now is playing...... Can someone explain to me why you have one the greatest singers and Mr Malmsteen sing this song????
A perfect record for the die-hard fans of this six string genius, a CD that most can leave in the store and choose something else!!

If there would be a listing of the most important guitarists in metal, he would be in this list. I'm talking about Yngwie Malmsteen and his new album Attack of Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force. The album has 15 tracks - 3 are instrumental ones - which feature the guitar master on all strings and partly keyboards and vocals beside that ex-Dream Theater keyboarder Derek Sherenian, drummer Patrick Johansson and shouter Dougie White.
It's guitar oriented rock music with pounding drums and catchy hooklines. That's a trademark for the music of Mr. Malmsteen for years and so he sticks to his roots still. And he also keeps including instrumentals.
The pleasure to see Mr. Malmsteen live in Europe will be given twice, coz the Swedish guitarist will tour from October 'til December on his own and next year he'll come as a part of the Ultimate Guitar Experience with two other outstanding guitarists which are Al Di Meola and Uli John Roth. If you have the chance you should try to see both! It'll be worth it!

War To End All Wars
(Dream Catcher - 2000)

For some Yngwie Malmsteen is a guitar hero, others find the Yngwie-style boring... Anyway, again Malmsteen found good musicians to work on War To End All Wars in singer Mark Boals, Mats Olausson (key) and John Macaluso (dr). The opening track Prophet Of Doom sounds very familiar... On that song Mark Boals couldn't show his own identity.
Songs like Crucify shows a bigger variety as much as it's possible in the Malmsteen style. As usual all songs, lyrics and arrangements are by Yngwie himself, he also produced the album. The sound / mixing isn't what I expected. This is not a too much polished album of one of the star producers, but I heard albums from newcomers who had a lower budget and have a better production... For my ears this production is too dull and takes a lot of the song dynamic.
Fans of Yngwie will love the songs (not the production), everyone else should check it out. In my opinion it's not one of the best records Mr. Malmsteen has done!
To get an idea, check out: Crucify, Catch 22 and Wild One